Craft back on the board

Brian Snow | Special to Rivals.com Basketball Recruiting

One of the top point guards in the country elected to open up his recruiting on Tuesday afternoon. Ohio native Aaron Craft, who was an early pledge to Tennessee, has now decided to open up his recruitment and explore some other options.

The decision for Craft to re-open his recruitment was not an easy one. The family has a close relationship with head coach Bruce Pearl and assistant coach Tony Jones. In fact, Pearl's reaction to the news was more than the Craft family expected.

"Bruce Pearl is a class, class guy," said Aaron's father John Craft. "I just spoke to him for 30 minutes and explained to him why Aaron has decided to open up his recruitment. He is just such a class guy and said he completely understood."

Mr. Craft continued, "The first thing out of (Pearl's) mouth was that he wanted what is best for Aaron."

According to Craft the biggest reason for the decision to open up the recruitment was distance from home, and that is a battle Tennessee knew they would be fighting for a while.

"The main issue is distance, and they told us they knew they were recruiting against distance from the very beginning," said Mr. Craft. "They knew it was something they would have to address right off the bat, so Pearl said it doesn't surprise him."

Despite the de-commitment, the Volunteers have definitely not been eliminated. "They asked if they could still recruit Aaron, and I told them that they have set the bar very high and that it will take a lot for someone to impress us more."

Initially Craft chose Tennessee over Dayton, Miami-Ohio, Harvard, and Butler. Now it is likely that many of the top schools in the Midwest will try to get back involved in the process.